This invention relates to a method and apparatus for sonically breaking up layers of sludge or other such material in an oil storage or transport vessel to facilitate the formation of an emulsion that can readily be removed from the oil storage or transport vessel. More particularly, this invention relates to a method and apparatus for introducing sonic energy into the oil storage or transport vessel through the walls thereof to break up the layers of sludge or other such material and facilitate the formation of the emulsion.
Sludge or other such material formed in oil storage vessels, such as oil storage tanks, or in oil transport vessels, such as oil tankers or barges, is typically removed to facilitate repair of the oil storage or transport vessels, to reclaim petroleum from the sludge or other such material, or to restore the full storage capacity of the oil storage or transport vessels. Conventionally, sludge or other such material is manually removed from oil storage or transport vessels. Such manual removal is dangerous, time consuming, wasteful and environmentally hazardous.
It is accordingly the principal object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus that eliminates the need for manually removing sludge or other such material from oil storage or transport vessels and that concomitantly overcomes the disadvantages of manual removal.
Another object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for introducing sonic energy into oil storage or transport vessels through the walls thereof to facilitate nonmanual removal of sludge or other such material formed in those vessels.
Still another object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for introducing sonic energy into oil storage or transport vessels through the walls thereof without the necessity of placing sonic transducers in physical contact with the walls of the vessels and without structurally altering or affecting the vessels.
These and other objects of this invention, which will become apparent from a reading of the following specification and an inspection of the accompanying drawings, are accomplished according to the illustrated preferred embodiments of this invention by acoustically coupling one or more sonic transducer arrays disposed outside an oil storage or transport vessel to sludge or other such material formed in the vessel and to a cleaning agent introduced into the vessel. Each sonic transducer array is mechanically or electronically scanned to direct a beam of sonic energy into the storage or transport vessel through a wall thereof in a manner such that all portions of the sludge or other such material and the cleaning agent contained in the vessel are cyclically radiated by sonic energy. This progressively breaks up layers of the sludge or other such material formed in the oil storage or transport vessel and thereby facilitates formation of an emulsion that can readily be pumped out of the vessel. Each sonic transducer array may be supported out of physical contact with the oil storage or transport vessel and within a fluid acoustically coupled to the sludge or other such material and the cleaning agent contained in the vessel by a housing releasably mechanically coupled to a wall of the vessel.